In The Darkness
by edmundblack
Summary: /She'd never see those emerald eyes again/The Boy Who Lived is dead, and so is everyone and now for Ginny the world is just gravestones.


**For the New Year's Resolution Challenge – Part of your OTP (Hinny) dying ($500). For the Greek Mythology Challenge, Demeter (write about Loss).**

_And with a great sadness, the Daily Prophet informs you that the Boy Who Lived, Harry James Potter, passed away yesterday at 5:02 p.m on Tuesday the 22__nd__ of August 2085, in the company of his loving wife Ginny, his three adoring children, his five grandchildren as well as various family-members. He will always be remembered and held close to our hearts as the Boy Who Lived and defeated Voldemort for a second and final time. He was also the Head of the Auror office for thirty-six years and the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for twelve years._

Ginny screwed up the paper and threw it at the wall, tears running down her frail face. It wasn't _fair, _her Great-Aunt Muriel had of course lived to one-hundred and thirty-six, but her own husband barely managed one-hundred and five. _Of course. _She hiccoughed into her hand, trying to stop crying. Only yesterday afternoon he had held her hand, smiling and whispering words of happiness and love, but he'd still had strain behind his eyes, strain of age and the memories of those battles all that time ago. Ginny hadn't forgotten, either. She had not forgotten her brother's last laugh or Colin Creevey's head being beaten in by a Death Eater, she hadn't forgotten the rawness in her throat after screaming for her love she assumed dead. 

"Grandmum," She raised her head wearily and smiled at her youngest grand-child, Daniel, and thought curiously that she remembered his father's birth, and now Daniel was a man of fifty-one, with grandchildren of his own. She gripped the table as hard as she dared – _I will be mum and Grandmum and great-grandmum and even great-great-grandmum but never again will I be 'daughter' or 'love' or 'wife' or 'honey'. Only few still call me Ginny. One day my name will fade, too. _

"Yes, Danny?" She asked wearily. He plodded over to her, and she spotted the grey in his hair and nearly laughed. _I must be a very old woman if I remember the births of the elderly. _He smiled at her, with glistening tears in his eyes, too.

"Mum and Dad are coming over soon, to help you plan the-" _funeral, _"Ahem. Aunt Lily and Enid will be here soon, too."

"What of James and Katie and your cousins?" Ginny asked. She wanted terribly to see her eldest son, who had left in a hurry yesterday after finding out their granddaughter was giving birth (which Ginny thought terribly strange, but apparently Zane hadn't known he was to be a grandfather until the hospital called him). _Harry will never meet them. _She broke down into tears again, sobbing and screaming, and Daniel patted her softly on the back.

"Hush. Uncle James and Aunt Katie will pop 'round for dinner, Dad said, and maybe Charlie too if he isn't busy, but Zane's got his grandkid and Scarlet's gone back to Romania already," Daniel explained. Ginny felt a hole widen in her heart. _Charlie. Romania. _Her brother had died years ago, and Ginny had never stopped missing him. Everybody was leaving her, her parents and some of her brothers and sisters-in-laws and Hermione and Ron and George were the only ones from her childhood left, the only ones related to her anyway. And the stress was killing Hermione and gluttony killing Ron and depression killing George and it seemed like soon she would be the only one left. She did not want to be alone, and she prayed (she'd never prayed before, but she needed guidance now) daily for their lives to continue. She did not want to one-day become the only one who remembered the screams of the battle and Voldemort's fierce white face gleaming with victory, she didn't want to be the only one who remembered Harry's dead body the first time or the fires or Bellatrix Lestrange trying to murder her and being murdered by Ginny's mother in-turn. It terrified her that she would be the only one left, and for once she did not want to be the survivor.

"Okay," She whispered, and Daniel moved around her to get to the coffee-maker, flicking his wand with ease. Ginny found herself staring at the table – they'd had this table and this house since they were twenty-four and twenty-three and she remembered making love with Harry on this table and waking in the midnight for her cravings and her water breaking and bringing all her children here, feeding three at once and listening to their demands, and returning after each September with at least one child not to return until Christmas. And then they all moved away and bought back more and more children to eat at this table and now she couldn't stop crying and couldn't imagine being happy ever again. She realized how George had felt, and wondered how he had survived all these years; Harry had been a part of her just as Fred had George and the world had torn them apart and Fred had been gone for so long and Harry just a day but the grief was consuming her and their laughs and smiles were slipping through her fingers like a bar of soap.

A hot drink was thrust into her hands and she thanked him, but it was bitter and cold even though it scorched her hands and she tried to remember Harry's green eyes and his voice but it was slipping and there were glasses on their bedside table that would never, ever be worn again. Someone patted her on the back and there were _cracks _as more arrived but now all she wanted was to follow Harry and her brothers and parents and friends into the darkness, because the world was already grey and she'd never see those emerald eyes again.


End file.
